


Perestroika

by nostalgia



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, The Borg, olfdic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-01-05
Updated: 2003-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22133191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nostalgia/pseuds/nostalgia
Summary: A future history of the Borg
Kudos: 2





	Perestroika

Humans never really understood the way we think; our unity, our loyalty, our patience. And we never understood them.

We/She/I was with them for so many years, becoming a part of their strange, disjointed pseudo-Collective. And we… I... learned to communicate in their inefficient manner, to vocalise with the muscles they saved from atrophy. There is a value to it, despite appearances, their disagreements serve to stimulate thought and action. This is what the Borg failed to understand, the cause of continual defeat by that tiny ship, that fragile woman. The Borg underestimated the individualist species.

But they were not so unlike us as they would have liked to believe. I was patient, given the circumstances, and began to develop an understanding of their perspectives. Assimilation kills information, so much is lost. The Borg came to value technology over culture so early in their existence, and with that decision they became vulnerable.

The crew of Voyager acted as a collective, in their own way. They valued the whole, worked for the good of the many. But they also valued their drones, saw the purpose of the individual as well as they group. If the Borg had known this…

When I was assimilated into Voyager’s crew, I was antagonistic. I did not realise the value of what I was to learn. It seemed a heresy, to accept that their methodology was superior to that of the Borg. Each of them held only personal memory, their database was held separate, accessed only when the individual lacked the required information. How could they make accurate estimations of a given situation without Borg unity, how could they overcome the obstacles they faced?

But they were victorious, exceeded the expectations of the Collective. They were worthy of assimilation, far more so than we ever realised.

And that is why we changed - Voyager was the catalyst for our transformation. When the drone designated Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One returned to the Collective, this information was absorbed, her experiences became ours.

We function more slowly now, our progress would disgust previous generations of drone – if they could understand disgust, if they had thought as we do now. But the change was necessary, we could not have succeeded without it.

I record this entry from the cube sub-fleet en route to the Small Magellanic Cloud. The memories of Seven of Nine are old now, the drone who held these thoughts died many centuries ago. But I am Seven of Nine, as I am so many others. As general of this sub-fleet, it was thought fitting that I hold her individuality as part of my personal matrix. The Coordinators are wise, and I am honoured by their decision. Before, I possessed the knowledge of that long-dead drone, now I think as she did. She communicates well with the other personalities in my individual sub-collective, and I understand more completely the value of her life on board that human vessel. I feel the initial anger as she realised the demands of her assignment, as she rejected the experiment as flawed. And I feel her eventual understanding, the triumph she felt as the ship was assimilated.

We did not understand evolution, did not comprehend that all species must change in order to survive. The body my sub-collective now inhabits was once an aquatic species, but left the oceans when the salt concentration fell below optimal levels. His name was Agrin, and he is me.

We will prosper and we will grow. We understand now.

We are made new.


End file.
